I'm so full...

Random title, I know, but I ate at Fat Lorenzo's with Vicki and Sybylla for supper today and it was sooo much food! My stomach isn't used to being stretched out so far in one sitting anymore.

Well we went camping (Nathan and I) at Crow Wing State Park. Got a late start but made it there with some daylight left. When we arrived and checked in we learned that, due to recent flooding and excess stagnant water, the mosquitoes had multiplied to threat level cloud. That's right, clouds of mosquitoes were everywhere, a thick fog of bloodsucking menaces. Got to the site, and (after applying as much DEET as we could get out of the cans) started attempting to assemble the giant 2 room tent. Unfortunately, the stakes were nowhere to be found, and the tent refused to go up without being staked down. So we got in the car and drove to the Walmart in Baxter and bought some fresh bug spray and some stakes. Back to the campsite and of course it's dark so we used the headlights from the car and got it set up. We may have made a fire, but I don't really remember.

On Saturday we slept in, then built up a fire. Breakfast/lunch (not brunch, we opted to rename it brench, for a more even distribution of the letters in each meal) was delicious cheesy hot dogs over the fire. We read for awhile (while digesting) and then attempted to go on a hike. We first headed down the steps to the Mississippi River, only to find the usual landing completely underwater. It was also extremely cloudy. As in, clouds of mosquitoes attacking our flesh. So we tried to hike down another trail but eventually gave up and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, with the lack of campfire smoke, the mosquitoes were intolerable at the campsite as well, so we jumped in the car and drove to the movie theater in Brainerd. I know, we were there for camping, but the bugs were just awful. The movie we decided to see wasn't playing for a few hours so we ended up taking an hour and a half hike on the Paul Bunyan State Trail (see - hiking!). We saw 7 garter snakes during our hike and I made us stop and take pictures of some of the pretty wildflowers growing alongside the trail. Got back and saw Prometheus - it wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either. Mostly it was just confusing, the plot went every which way and that made it hard to follow what was actually happening. Went back to the campsite and started up a fresh fire for pie iron pizzas (dinner!). Then just hung out, reading, stoking the fire, and eventually making smores until bedtime.

On Sunday we again slept in (I didn't think it was possible to do that while camping, but apparently my sleeping skills have grown tremendously) and had leftover hot dogs and pie iron pizzas for brench (that's right, I'm making it a thing). Read some more (good books!) and then made dessert pie irons (peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallow for me, the same minus peanut butter plus graham cracker chunks for Nathan). Delicious. Eventually of course we had to pack up the camp and drive back to the cities.

The rest of this week has most just been long and painful. Mostly because last week was only a 3 day week for me with two vacations, and then a full week with not much to do at work. Enough of my whining. Monday was meeting at the Animal Humane Society and then dinner with Nathan (Bosco sticks!), Tuesday was strength training, Wednesday was WW (25lb total!) and dinner with Vicki and Sybylla at Fat Lorenzo's (so good). So I started this blog on Wednesday and am finishing it on Thursday (today). Nothing much happened today either, other than strength training again.

So in life news I've been working on my vet school applications. It's mostly through one common site (VMCAS) and it's pretty intense. It wants you to recall every activity you ever did from high school on, which is a bit difficult when it's been so long since high school (over 10 years since freshman year - I am so old...) So far I've managed to get two evaluators, but still need to get a couple more, plus at least one if not two vets. I'm planning to spend an afternoon with the vet from the VA and I'm hoping he'll be willing to write one for me. I'm also hoping that volunteering with Kindest Cut at the AHS (they spay/neuter animals at shelters) will put me in touch with another vet who may be willing to write one for me.

I think that's pretty much it for now, other than my statistics class is going well (working ahead a lot) and today I got an email from my physiology professor (taking it in the fall) who changed the textbook, meaning I had to resell the one I bought last month. On the plus side the new textbook is optional and I already managed to sell my old one for the same price I bought it for. Win?

June is escaping!

Seriously, I can't believe it's already been almost 2 weeks since I took the GRE - it feels like it was just yesterday! Speaking of which, I finally got my official scores: 165 Verbal (96th percentile), 165 Math (93rd percentile), and 4.5 Writing (72nd percentile - ouch). So yay overall for that.

So on Friday night I drove Addy to Nathan's where I dropped her off (she stayed with his roommate Chris for the weekend) and picked up Nathan. We drove to Breezy Point Resort (with a stop at Taco Bell along the way - the Dorito taco is freaking delicious!) and met up with my parents.

I honestly don't think we did anything that night but I could be wrong - I just don't remember! On Saturday we tried to go tubing but it was really windy and the tube sucked. We spent hours reading - on the beach and on the porch of the condo. Dinner was burgers with the parents' friends and later that night we tried night fishing - the bobbers glow! But we didn't catch a thing.

On Sunday we had a big delicious breakfast and then hung out indoors a lot (it was rainy and windy out). Lunch was hot dogs and macaroni & cheese - delicious. Later, Nathan and I went to see Snow White & the Huntsman. All I can say is that it was pretty to watch, but oh my word the plot was terrible. I'm pretty lenient with judging movies and books but this one was just bad, it was a let down for sure.

Monday we went fishing and didn't catch much (some, but no walleyes yet). In the afternoon Nathan and I went to Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf. Nathan and his family used to go there when he was a kid so it was a fun nostalgia thing for him and a fun "I suck at mini golf" thing for me. On the way back we stopped in Nisswa and visited the Chocolate Ox (yummy candy store) and the Rainy Day Bookstore (this is the store that I preordered the sixth Harry Potter book from years ago and forced my family to drive me there that summer during our vacation and then of course read the entire book in a day). We ate dinner that night at The Commander - great food but the waitress was terrible - kept forgetting us and it took almost an hour to get our food.

Tuesday was the last day of vacation :( We went fishing in the afternoon and I caught 13 perch while dad only caught a couple and poor Nathan didn't catch any. We also played golf (the card game) and ate leftovers. Eventually we had to drive home.

Yesterday was WW and I was seriously considering not going - I hadn't tracked all weekend and ate tons of cookies and candy and chips etc. But I eventually decided I had to go, and I even made myself walk there. To my surprise I only gained 0.4 lb! So that was a relief.

Today was a super long day. I woke up and it was dark and scary looking outside so I made the weird decision to drive halfway and walk the rest into work. It's about a 20 minute walk plus the drive time makes it much longer than my usual bike in. Didn't get rained on too much on the way in, then had a semi-slow day at work, then worked on my statistics homework, then went to my weight training class. After that I was starving but still had to walk back! I didn't get home until 8:30 pm, only to discover that Addy had tried to pull the cat toy off the mirror and instead managed to pull the full length mirror off the wall, to shatter on the floor. UGH. So I cleaned that up, fed her, had dinner, finished my stats homework, and I still have to pack for camping tomorrow!

I'm so tired, I hope I manage to get it all done.

GRE complete!

For the past few years, ever since I realized that I wouldn't be getting very far working in research with only a Bachelor's degree, I've had a "To Do" list. At the very top of this list was "take the GRE." Well ladies and gentlemen, I can finally cross that off my list.

That's right, I took the GRE on Saturday and, even though I stressed out before and during the test, I got it done and actually did very well. I scored a 165 in Verbal Reasoning (96th percentile) and 165 in Quantitative Reasoning (math - 93rd percentile). I'm bragging, I know, but I'm just so dang proud! I think buying the prep materials and actually taking a few practice tests really did help. I'm super excited to never have to take it again though.

So I dropped Addy off at Nathan's on Friday night and spent that night both semi relaxing (caught up on Game of Thrones) and semi studying (just going over the vocab flash cards). Then on Saturday I took the GRE (duh) and drove to Culver's to celebrate! After Culver's I drove down to Rochester, where my parents offered to pay for my test in return for some menial labor. I readily agreed; painting/staining the deck was a wonderfully mindless task after weeks of trying to stuff my brain full of math tricks and vocabulary. I finished up right as it was starting to get dark out and then joined my parents for some TV watching (Beauty and the Beast was on ABC Family - almost over but still!). Then mom went to bed and dad and I watched I Love You Man. It was a pretty slow movie, I wouldn't recommend it.

On Sunday my mom had to work and my dad went golfing so I was alone with Belle. We went for a decent walk to Petco and the dollar store and got sprinkled on by a bit of rain on the way back. Left my parents a Mother's/Father's Day gift, ate some leftovers, and headed back to the Cities. At home I watched some TV until Nathan got home and then headed over to pick up Addy. Nathan and I decided to go exploring so I went on another long walk - this time ending at Dairy Queen (chocolate dipped cone, yummy). With those two walks today I totaled about 5-6 miles, and all in terrible shoes for walking, which means I now have some nasty, huge, and painful blisters on my feet. Hopefully riding my bike won't upset them further.

So my busy-ness is continuing: I'm now free to start my Statistics class anytime (since I no longer have to be studying for the GRE), I'm starting a group strength training course this week (every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 8 weeks), I still have WW on Wednesday nights, and of course my vacations. This Friday Nathan and I are going Up North to Breezy Point with my parents from Friday night (or Saturday morning - haven't quite decided yet) until Tuesday afternoon. Then the following weekend we're going camping at Crow Wing State Park from Friday to Sunday and the weekend after that is my Como Zoo Volunteer training. I've probably mentioned all this before, but yea, my June is hectic.

But the GRE is done! One less thing to worry about.